fibona aims to create new beauty innovations from the fusion of Shiseido's researchers and various external people and knowledge. Now with the program celebrating its first anniversary, various projects are underway, including “Co-creation with Startups” and “Speedy Trial.”

The key to accelerating this movement is the presence of external advisors called "Pollinators®." They primarily contribute to the activities at the Incubation Center, which is implemented at the Shiseido Global Innovation Center (GIC), a research facility, and participate in the decision-making process.

What should be the future of open innovation at companies? What is important in co-creating with outside experts?

Mariko Nishimura, Yuya Nishimura, and Kazuo Wakamiya, who have been appointed as external Pollinators since 2020, and fibona project owner Hidefumi Araki report on their heated online conversation.

(Moderator: Yuko Nakanishi, fibona Project Leader)

Members this year *Profiles are listed at the end of this article.
Mariko Nishimura (top left): Pollinator, Representative of HEART CATCH Inc.
Yuya Nishimura (upper center): Representative Director of NPO MIRATUKU Inc.
Kazuo Wakamiya (right): Founder and CEO, uni'que Inc.
Hidefumi Araki (bottom center): fibona Project Owner, Head of R&I Strategy Department and Incubation Center
Yuko Nakanishi (bottom left): fibona Project Leader, Manager of R&I Strategy Group

"Pollinators" freely connect people and information

Nakanishi:
In January 2020, we brought together three people who were appointed as Pollinators, external advisors for research and development, primarily at incubation centers. What exactly is a Pollinator?

Araki:
I consider Pollinators to be planning professionals.

I believe that innovation requires both "planning" and "realization," and we researchers are, so to speak, professionals in the "realization" field. When approached with an idea that we want to realize, we are good at commercializing it by successfully combining the results of their past research and various technologies. On the other hand, we need some assistance with the "planning” side of things. Therefore, we decided to ask for the help of our Pollinators, innovation design professionals, to help us with that aspect.

In addition, I also thought it would be difficult to propose innovation to consumers from the perspective of Shiseido alone in the current era. If you stay within the company for a long time, you will develop stereotypes about consumers and beauty. In order to remove those boundaries, I wanted to ask outside professionals to advise me on whether ideas and business plans are really interesting and whether they can really contribute to society.

M. Nishimura:
In creating new services and products in the future, it is ideal to move agilely while gathering information from various angles through external connections. The so-called "agile development" method of system development, in which services are quickly released and brushed up from the completed parts, is suitable. However, it is difficult for companies to implement this kind of method from scratch.

Nakanishi:
What does the term Pollinator mean?

M. Nishimura：
The literal translation in Japanese means pollinator, and it refers to bees that fly around and spread pollen to and from various plants. I first came across this word when I learned about the Eden Project in England (a huge environmental complex).

The Eden Project is a show-style botanical garden that gathers plants from all over the world in a beehive-shaped dome. When explaining how a cactus grows in the Sahara Desert, for example, a Pollinator plays the role of an animal or insect inhabiting the area while introducing the plant into that location.

It occurred to me that the movement to deliver information on the needs of other companies and new approaches of startups to a company that is trying to initiate a new open innovation-type project, as well as activities to connect people, is similar to the pollinators in the Eden Project.

The role is to pollinate R&D with ideas within a company and foster them until they are output as "nectar" for the business. Even though the role is similar to consulting, it is more pollination and Pollinator than consulting to show agile.

Are we thinking agilely in new value development?

Even if it takes time to find a theme, innovation will accelerate at a tremendous pace if there is value that no one has noticed before or if there is an undiscovered blue ocean expanding. I believe that if we can get advice from Pollinators, we will be able to quickly turn the process from new business planning to social implementation in a small way.

Nakanishi:
What do you, as a Pollinator, value in promoting innovation in your companies?

Wakamiya:
I already have a lot of failed experiences regarding that... (laughs). The most common one is the age of the business or market. In new corporate businesses, the time axis is often forgotten. Everyone issues an order to create innovation, but they say it must succeed or it is a failure because the scale of sales is too small. This is actually a self-contradiction...

The word innovation is used very vaguely by everyone.

If you want to make a large number of sales immediately, say within a year, it is better to enter a proven market and use the assets of a large company to boost your business, rather than going from 0 to 1. In other words, it is a way to create a business in the 10 to 1,000 phase, where the business is nurtured from the age of 20, not as a "baby," to a high annual revenue.

They seek innovations that do not exist in the world, but brand them as failures when they are asked about the number of users and the number of sales only a few months after launch. This is like asking a baby how tall it is and how much money it makes.

Therefore, when advising companies on new business ideas, we thoroughly discuss with the people on the front lines and management whether they really want to innovate in the first place or not, whether they need sales, and we explain when they will be successful and what “age” they should start at in order to achieve that goal.

M. Nishimura:
In the future, when consumers' needs change quickly and become more complex, it will be important for a company to demonstrate its attitude to the world, gain empathy, and build a fan base. At that time, companies must not get lost. It is the consumers who will be lost.

It is important to not be afraid of failure, but to bravely declare, "We are offering these new values!” and raise the banner with courage. Showing that backbone will lead to trust in the company. I believe this is necessary to accelerate innovation.

Y. Nishimura:
I have three perspectives on this. The first is to take a multifaceted view of the time axis. New businesses tend to be viewed along two axes, the short term or the long term. What is important, however, is to think, "We can work on it right now, on our feet, while looking ahead to the future, 100 years from now.” Can we have such two-sided perspectives at the same time?

In space development terminology, there is the term "dual use.” The idea is not to create products that are only useful on rockets or in space, but to consider the possibility of using them on Earth right now. I think it is better to conduct business development based on this concept.

Second, you need to decide on an exit. Innovation ideas are endless when you start thinking about them. But the turning point for bringing them to fruition is whether or not there are constraints. If you really want to sell your product in the market, you will always face constraints such as "this size is optimal for placing it on the sales floor," or "this range of unit price is suitable to make a profit.”

These constraints may seem to be a detriment to commercialization, but it is important to overcome them. Projects that don't go well don't even get to the constraints because they are not really looking to release the product to the world.

The third is humility. When I start thinking about innovation, I gradually get into an arrogant mood like "no one would ever come up with such a great idea" (laughs), but it is important to stand on the premise that "no, no, everyone is thinking the same thing.”

When you think that the idea is the same, but wonder why it didn't take shape in other projects, you begin to think seriously about how to release it and what you need to break through to do so. I think that if we start thinking of unique ways to break through those barriers, it will work.

The Essence of Innovation, From Design Thinking to Art Thinking.

Araki:
Shiseido has been in the business of mass-producing a single product, deploying mass advertising, and selling it in large quantities. We tend to think that we can feel rest assured if we conduct extensive research and develop products based on the results. It is the same for us researchers.

However, now is not an era in which you can win by simply following the research. Before, we could just believe in what we felt was interesting and new and go ahead with it. But as we went along, that strength gradually weakened.

Wakamiya:
In new business development at large companies, ideas tend to become more rounded as they go through the approval process, but in order to create a windfall in the market, it is important to narrow down the idea, sharpen the pencil, make a small hole first, and then make that hole bigger and bigger. Just because you want to make a big hole (from the beginning), doesn’t mean you can make it by pushing with a log.

Art thinking is the focus of attention in these 0  1 situations. To put it roughly, design thinking and logical thinking observe and analyze the user and propose a solution by saying, "This is what you want," but art thinking is like saying, "This is great, why don't you try it?” and then push with enthusiasm by presenting them with something they like. I believe that a business is ultimately a "gift to society," and the users who receive a product may at first think, "Wow, what's this?” But gradually, they fall in love with it even though they had no expectations.

Innovation is the creation of unexpected value, so nowadays I believe that innovation cannot be achieved simply by guessing at the needs of users.

Y. Nishimura:
That is very researcher-like. They say, "I don't know if it will work, but let's give it a try anyway to find out.” I think people have an image of researchers as logical people, but in fact they are people who like to do things that don't make sense (laughs). It is both art and science.

Yuya Nishimura / Representative Director, NPO MIRATUKU Inc. Born in Ikeda City, Osaka in 1981. Obtained a Master's degree in Human Science from Osaka University Graduate School. After working for a human resource development venture company and the Japan Productivity Center, he established the NPO MIRATUKU Inc. in 2011 based on the Dialogue BAR activities he started in 2008. He is engaged in building an innovation platform that transcends sectors, occupations, and domains, supporting business creation for about 30 major companies per year, helping to launch R&D projects, designing future concepts, and searching for future trends. He is also an Innovation Designer at RIKEN's Future Strategy Office and a Specially Appointed Associate Professor at Osaka University's Social Solutions Initiative. He has contributed numerous articles.

Mariko Nishimura / Producer / Pollinator, Representative, HEART CATCH Inc. Graduated from International Christian University. She started her career as an IT engineer at IBM Japan. After working as a field marketing manager at Adobe Systems and a producer at Bascule, she established HEART CATCH Inc. in 2014. As a "cross-border producer" connecting business, creativity, and technology, she has created projects for her own company, startups, corporations, and government agencies. She is a J-Startup Support Company, Executive Producer of Art Thinking Improbable Workshop, a member of the 1st Japan Open Innovation Awards Expert Committee of the Cabinet Office, a member of the 4th Industrial Revolution Creative Study Group of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, an adjunct professor at Musashino Art University's Graduate School of Art and Design, Department of Creative Innovation and an Adjunct Lecturer at the Graduate School of Musashino Art University, Department of Creative Innovation.

Kazuo Wakamiya / Founder & CEO, uni'que Inc. Born 1976 in Hachinohe City, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. In 2006, he moved to the IT industry after seeing the potential of mobile internet and launched several new businesses at NTT DoCoMo and DeNA. In 2017, he founded uni'que, a startup that creates female-led businesses. The company was selected for the Toyo Keizai "Amazing Venture 100," the "Work Story Award" Innovation Prize, and the Bandai Namco Accelerator Excellence Award. He supports women's activities not only in the business field, but also in art and education. He is also active in a wide range of fields including art and education, as well as business. He is the author of "How to Art Thinking" (Jitsugyo no Nihonsha).

*"Pollinator" is a registered trademark of HEART CATCH Inc.
（text: Kanako Ishikawa Edit: Kaori Sasagawa）